White Chocolate Chips substitute

Best substitute

Chopped white chocolate bar

Use the same amount by weight; 6 oz is about 1 cup as the white chocolate chips you are replacing

Best for cookies

Different texture

Chopped white chocolate bar swaps in 1:1 by weight, with one difference: bar chocolate has more cocoa butter, so it melts into streaks and pools instead of staying as neat chips. White candy melts or vanilla melting wafers, chopped, hold their shape better and are the closest match in behaviour. Butterscotch chips are the best non-white swap for a similar sweetness level, and regular chocolate chips work 1:1 but make a noticeably less sweet cookie.

Other white chocolate chips substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2White candy melts or vanilla melting wafers, chopped
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Confectionery coating made with vegetable fat rather than cocoa butter.
What changes
It holds its shape in the oven better than anything, because that fat has a higher melting point than cocoa butter.
Best for
cookies, bars, drizzling, coating, decorations
Sweeter and distinctly waxier than real white chocolate, with a coating of fat that lingers on the palate. On the other hand it is the most reliable behaviour-wise: it will not scorch, it melts smoothly, and it stays in visible pieces. A fair trade if the recipe is heavily flavoured anyway.
3Butterscotch chips
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Sugar, butter and vanilla in chip form, with brown sugar's caramel note.
What changes
Very close to white chocolate chips in sweetness and in how they behave in a hot oven.
Best for
cookies, blondies, bars, oatmeal cookies, muffins
The best substitute if you do not need the pale colour. It reads as butterscotch and caramel rather than creamy vanilla, which suits oatmeal cookies and blondies particularly well and looks slightly golden rather than ivory. Sweetness is close enough that no sugar adjustment is needed.
4Semisweet or milk chocolate chips
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Same shape, same melting behaviour, completely different flavour and colour.
What changes
Best for
cookies, muffins, bars, trail mix
Worth knowing that white chocolate is much sweeter than semisweet, so a cookie made with semisweet chips tastes noticeably less sweet as well as more chocolatey. In a white chocolate raspberry or macadamia cookie, this makes a different cookie rather than the same one. Milk chocolate chips split the difference on sweetness.
5Peanut butter chips
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Similar sugar level, similar soft melt, an obvious peanut flavour.
What changes
Best for
cookies, bars, brownies, oatmeal cookies
Behaves almost identically in the oven and matches white chocolate chips for sweetness. The peanut flavour is unmissable, so use it when it fits the recipe rather than as a stealth swap. Excellent in brownies, wrong in a delicate vanilla scone.
6There is no substitute for it: white-chocolate-forward recipes
Different texture
When the recipe is named after white chocolate, as in white chocolate blondies, white chocolate raspberry cookies or a white chocolate ganache, the ingredient is the flavour and nothing else tastes like it.
What changes
Cocoa butter with milk solids and vanilla has a specific creamy, slightly buttery sweetness with no cocoa bitterness at all.
Best for
knowing when to change plans
The least-bad option is a homemade version: melt 3 ounces of cocoa butter, whisk in 1/2 cup dry milk powder, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, spread it thin on parchment, chill and chop. It tastes genuinely like white chocolate. It will not hold chip shape as well in the oven, because it has no stabiliser, so expect it to melt into the crumb.

What is White Chocolate Chips?

White Chocolate Chips is the name for drops of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and vanilla formed with slightly less fat and a little added stabiliser so they hold their shape in the oven, though many products sold as white baking chips or vanilla chips use palm kernel oil instead of cocoa butter and are not legally white chocolate at all.

Cooking tips

Read the label before you judge your chips. If cocoa butter is not in the ingredients, you have vanilla-flavoured baking chips rather than white chocolate, and they will taste waxier and melt into a thicker, duller mass. Neither is wrong, but they behave differently, and this explains most complaints about white chocolate not melting properly.
White chocolate scorches at a much lower temperature than dark, because it is mostly sugar and milk solids with no cocoa solids to buffer it. Microwave at 50% power in 15-second bursts, stirring each time, and stop while it still looks lumpy. Past about 110F it turns grainy and cannot be recovered.
White chocolate chips are made with less cocoa butter than a bar, so melted chips are too thick to drizzle. Stir in 1 teaspoon of neutral oil or refined coconut oil per half cup to thin them into something pourable.
Because white chocolate is roughly half sugar, a recipe already loaded with it does not need its full sugar amount. If a cookie with white chips comes out cloying, cut the recipe's sugar by 2 tablespoons rather than reducing the chips.
White chocolate goes stale faster than dark, since the milk solids pick up off flavours and the fat is unprotected by cocoa solids. Buy it in small quantities, keep it sealed away from spices and coffee, and use it within a few months.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a white chocolate bar instead of white chocolate chips?

Yes, 1:1 by weight. Chop it into rough cubes. The only difference is that bar chocolate has more cocoa butter, so it melts more in the oven and gives you streaks and pools rather than distinct chips. Freezing the pieces first helps them hold their shape.

Are white baking chips the same as white chocolate chips?

Often not. Real white chocolate must contain cocoa butter, and many products labelled white baking chips or vanilla chips use palm kernel oil instead. They hold their shape better in the oven but taste sweeter and waxier and melt into a thicker, less silky liquid.

Can I just leave white chocolate chips out?

If they are folded into a cookie or muffin batter as an add-in, yes; the bake will simply be less sweet and less rich. If the recipe is built on white chocolate, like blondies where the melted chocolate is part of the batter's fat and sugar, no, because you would be removing structure as well as flavour.

What can I use instead of white chocolate chips for someone avoiding dairy?

Dairy-free white chips made with rice or oat milk powder exist and behave much like the palm-oil kind. Otherwise butterscotch and peanut butter chips usually contain dairy too, so check labels; chopped macadamia nuts or dried fruit give a similar textural interruption without any chocolate at all.

Why did my white chocolate seize when I melted it?

Either it got too hot, above roughly 110F, or a little water or steam got in. White chocolate is the most heat-sensitive of the three, so melt it in short low-power bursts in a completely dry bowl and take it out while pieces are still visible.

Related substitutes

More baking substitutes

White Chocolate Chips substitute

Other white chocolate chips substitutes

2White candy melts or vanilla melting wafers, chopped

3Butterscotch chips

4Semisweet or milk chocolate chips

5Peanut butter chips

6There is no substitute for it: white-chocolate-forward recipes